Atlanta Daily World

Seventy days separate us from the football season of 1936 which will begin officially about the mid-point in September when the moguls and the powers-that-be arrive in Atlanta to pour off the rules and select officials.

The defeat of Joe Louis altered the plans of more than one sports department. The boys had hoped for a repetition of the summer of 1935 when they rushed to New York in late September to see the Bomber bomb Baer and then turn to a fine season of football. They had hoped that Louis would be meeting Mr. Braddock this September (as a matter of fact they KNEW Louis would meet Braddock) and after that they hoped to look back toward football. These two, football and Joe Louis, constituted the main source for most of the better sports stories for a waiting public.

The escapades of Jesse Owens and a few more were but side issues even if they were important. The track and field angle has become our last barrier now with Leroy Haynes and Joe Louis battered out of the parlor of things sportive.

We will spend the rest of the seventy days talking about the Olympic games and hoping that Germany does not turn out to be a nightmare for Jesse Owens, Connie Johnson, Ivy Traville, Williams and the rest of our hopefuls. If our boys lose out entirely in Germany in August the year 1936 will be a bitter memory to all of us for years to come. This generation, at least, would never forget it.

Football In July

At this time with the weather swinging high up near the 98 degree variety, football looks like something far away, much too far away to waste important space about. A check up on facts with 1935 well in mind causes this story to include the following observations: A few teams are to be stronger in 1936 than they were in 1935 and among them are to be Morehouse, Tuskegee, Morris Brown, South Carolina and Benedict. Florida, Clark, LeMoyne and Fisk may be a shade weaker with no change either way at Talladega, Knoxville and Alabama although the latter may find herself lamentably lonesome with a few key men out of the picture this time.

The big question mark of 1936 will be Florida where Bill Bell has stepped in to succeed young Juby Bragg. Florida may be a real surprise if he can get the best out of his material. The Floridians play Clark University in Atlanta this fall to resume relations that were terminated at Jacksonville in 1928 when Sam Taylor won a hard fought 7 to 0 game. It will be Florida's first trip to Atlanta to play a Clark team in eleven years. In 1925 the Floridians came to Atlanta where they were taken for a 17 to 0 ride.